Toilet paper or bath tissue rolls have remained relatively unchanged since first being invented in the late 1800's, essentially consisting of a length of tissue paper wound onto a cardboard core to form a roll. The length of tissue paper has spaced-apart lines of perforation that run parallel to the axis of the core (perpendicular to the machine direction of the length of tissue paper). Typically, the width of the tissue paper is about 4 inches and the distance between lines of perforation is also about 4 inches, resulting in a “sheet” measuring about 4 inches square. The individual rolls are manufactured by first producing a tissue “log”, which is essentially a very long wound roll of tissue paper that is subsequently perpendicularly cut multiple times into multiple individual rolls of toilet paper using a log saw. Tissue logs can typically be about 10 feet long, for example.
In use, a toilet paper user may unwind and detach several sheets from the roll and fold them over each other to provide sufficient hand protection during wiping. In most instances, only the central portion of the combined sheets may necessarily require two or more sheets to prevent fecal matter from contacting the fingers. Having multiple sheet thicknesses around the outer edges of the combined sheets may not be necessary to provide the required hand protection, where only one sheet thickness may be sufficient in those areas. In effect, conventional toilet paper sheets can be economically inefficient in that the sheets are larger than necessary and therefore are wasteful in terms of papermaking fiber utilization.
Therefore there is a need for a toilet paper product that provides not only adequate wiping performance and hand protection, but which is also more economical in terms of fiber utilization.